Where is BASIC Bank's main plunderer?

The history of the country's state-owned banks has not been anyway glorious. Mismanagement, loan scams and a huge volume of classified loans have been hallmarks of their operations. The highhandedness of the trade unions with political patronage amid weak management had thrown these banks into chaos in the initial years of their existence. Though the situation is somewhat better now, the public sector banks are still not out of the woods.
When the government had swallowed criticism for not being able to run the banks under its control properly, one particular bank, the BASIC Bank, stood out from others. Even many private banks used to envy the bank's healthy annual balance sheets. However, the enviable success of the BASIC Bank came to an end in 2009 when the new Awami League government appointed Sheikh Abdul Hai alias Bacchu, a former Jatiya Party lawmaker from Bagerhat district, as its chairman for three years. The link between him and the ruling Awami League remains a mystery. Until the appointment of Mr Hai, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry used to head the board of directors of the BASIC by dint of his/her official position.
The deliberate deviation from the tradition proved to be very damaging for the bank, as the new chairman started sanctioning loans indiscriminately and appointed men of his choice giving a damn to laws and rules. Despite reports in the media about irregularities of all sorts in the bank, the government appointed Mr Hai for another two-year term in 2012. Only a day before the expiry of the term, he resigned voluntarily. But by then the die was cast. The plunder that Bacchu engineered during his five-year stay had brought the bank to its knees. The Anti-corruption Commission (ACC) found irregularities in the distribution of loans amounting to Tk 22.65 billion. But the actual volume is estimated to be more than Tk 40 billion. A big chunk of this money, Mr Hai embezzled personally.
Interestingly, though the media cried hoarse about Mr Hai's direct involvement in the loot of the bank money, the ACC, for reasons best known to it, dropped his name from the list of suspects over a long time. However, the name of Mr Hai was finally put at the top of the list of the accused that the ACC submitted before the court the other day.
Now reports have it that none knows the whereabouts of Mr Hai, the main accused. He is suspected not to be in the country. There should be no plausible reasons for him to remain within the reach of the long hand of the law.
Possibly, he has transferred a huge volume of illicit funds abroad during the past nine years. It is unlikely that the government would ever be able to bring him back and put him in the dock. Unless anything happens otherwise, he would continue to enjoy the wealth he amassed by foul means.
If the suspicion that Mr Hai has fled the country turns out to be true, the ACC has to answer questions about his disappearance. Mr Hai's name has been included as an accused in 58 out of 59 charge sheets. The ACC got the involvement of Mr Hai in all cases of the bank's fund embezzlement during the investigation. Did the ACC notify all land and air ports putting restrictions on his going out of the country? If yes, the ACC now needs to see how Mr Hai passed through the immigration.
P.K Halder the man who took away billions of Taka from several financial institutions also had managed his way out to India. These people probably were alerted before hand by some quarters so that they could flee the country and avoid arrest.

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